Detailed information

Identifiers. In the 1890s, Antonin DvoŇ√k and his American advocates had already pointed American composers to folk and indigenous music: to ‚Negro melodies‚ and to Indians. But in fact DvoŇ√k equally adored composed Stephen Foster tunes like ‚Old Folks at Home. ‚ Ives, too, deeply served an unprejudiced breadth of musical speech. As a Danbury Yankee, he shared personal experience not with slaves and Navajos, or even (excepting some handed-down fiddle tunes) with the folk musicians of North America. Rather: via the parlor and salon, he identified with hymns and minstrel tunes; via the organ loft, he identified with Bach; via his father and his Yale composition teacher Horatio Parker, he identified with Beethoven and Brahms.